Thirteen years on, the Mumbai deluge of July 26, 2005 continues to be the benchmark of urban rainfall in India. In a single day, the Met Department recorded a whopping 944 mm of rain: that’s approximately half the amount of rain Mumbai usually gets in June and July, combined. Even weather-hardened Mumbaikars, inured to the logjams and floods the monsoons usually bring, found themselves reeling under the unprecedented scale of the rain.
The devastation unleashed by the deluge of July 26, and the days that followed, brought Maximum City to its knees and implanted the date into our collective memory.
Nearly 1100 people reportedly died from rain-related accidents and diseases like malaria and leptospirosis that spread in the rains' wake. All forms of transport were hit. Mumbai’s domestic and international airports were shut for 30 hours due to flooding of runways, and over 700 flights were cancelled or delayed. On the roads, 900 BEST buses, 4,000 taxis and 37,000 auto-rickshaws were damaged, and at least 100,000 residential and commercial buildings were also damaged. The Mumbai-Pune expressway too was closed due to landslides for 24 hours. And exhausted commuters were left sleeping overnight in the coaches of stranded local trains, which only resumed operations the next day.
There were also many heart-warming stories of compassion and spirit that emerged from the city, of people reaching out to help their fellow Mumbaikars in distress.
Author Kiran Manral, who witnessed the devastation first hand, asked Twitterati to share their memories of 26/7. Here are some of the stories that emerged, from a cross-spectrum of people - worried parents, officegoers, journalists, students and other aam Mumbaikars.
A former television journalist relives the experience.
Others had it better, if only a little.
